Last year 16 percent of the population in Illinois was Hispanic, according to the US Census Bureau. And according to the Centers for Disease Control, one in 10 Latinos in the country over age 20 have diabetes. Angela Wiley, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studies Latino communities in the US and Mexico.

Wiley’s research suggests parents’ expectations their kids study and focus on family contribute to the obesity rate among Latinos in Mexico, and in the U.S. She also runs a program that works to intervene with immigrant families in Illinois by teaching them about nutrition and physical fitness while also assessing their needs.